Rep. Randy Weber: More Nuclear Power for Data Centers
Big tech companies have been pursuing nuclear power as electricity demands increase.
WASHINGTON, March 28, 2025 – The vice chairman of the House Subcommittee on Energy wants more nuclear energy to power increasing demands from data centers.
“These facilities require an enormous amount of power, and their demand is only growing and going to get bigger,” Rep. Randy Weber, R-Texas, said. The lawmaker spoke Thursday at a Broadband Breakfast data centers summit in Washington.
The Department of Energy has projected electricity use by data centers to double or triple by 2028, going from 4.4 percent of the grid’s power use to up to 12 percent. Companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have already been inking deals to eventually power campuses directly from nuclear reactors, either large traditional facilities like Three Mile Island in Michigan or new smaller reactors still being developed.
Broadband Breakfast
“Nuclear energy is clean, it’s consistent, and provides the base-level power we need to maintain grid stability,” Weber said.
Some broadband providers have also been cashing in on the increased connectivity needs as companies pour money into data-hungry artificial intelligence models. Lumen – in talks to be acquired by AT&T, it’s been reported – has said it signed $8 billion in such deals last year, with Zayo, another fiber provider, reporting $1 billion.
